New personal organiser....

Submitted: Thursday, Jun 03, 2004 at 19:39
ThreadID: 13433 Views:2028 Replies:5 FollowUps:4
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I saw a gadjet on TV this morning... a personal organiser cum sat nav.. colour for about $1000. Question: do these devices work as was implied indoors? would have thought that it would have been like any other sat nav gear and had to have the antenna outside....Anyway as I still have my trusty sextant and chronometer I'll be using that for a while....
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Reply By: Lone Wolf - Thursday, Jun 03, 2004 at 19:54

Thursday, Jun 03, 2004 at 19:54
And I want that new phone they've been advertising on the Telly......... CDMA AND Satellite.

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Follow Up By: Mad Dog (Victoria) - Thursday, Jun 03, 2004 at 21:45

Thursday, Jun 03, 2004 at 21:45
A CDMA, Sat, HF and internet phone would be good.
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Reply By: Member - Rick (S.A.) - Thursday, Jun 03, 2004 at 19:55

Thursday, Jun 03, 2004 at 19:55
Rick Blaine

I'm interested in your use of sextant & clock.

Can you suggest where I may find out more (e.g. web sites) about these navigational instuments, & how to use them?

Kind of impressive how the explorers/surveyors did it all by star observations, calculations, etc

I have had a brief search on the net with no real useful result.

Thanks
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Follow Up By: Rick Blaine - Thursday, Jun 03, 2004 at 20:15

Thursday, Jun 03, 2004 at 20:15
The instruments are available at most boat/marine suppliers... mine are antiques from my great grandfather who was a navigator in the last days of sail....I was taught to use them by my father... You can do tech courses in celestial navigation and most boat/yacht clubs also have courses for members...
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Follow Up By: Mad Dog (Victoria) - Thursday, Jun 03, 2004 at 21:42

Thursday, Jun 03, 2004 at 21:42
Remember to always carry a gps as backup though, just in case your sextant or clock should suffer problems. :)
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Follow Up By: Shaker - Thursday, Jun 03, 2004 at 23:13

Thursday, Jun 03, 2004 at 23:13
I have a plastic sextant, which is accurate for navigational purposes & would be great to learn with. I have no further use for it & will sell it for $50.00. Books are available fron Boat Books in Melbourne.
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Reply By: Rick Blaine - Thursday, Jun 03, 2004 at 20:23

Thursday, Jun 03, 2004 at 20:23
Try this site if you wish to purchase these instruments:
http://www.marinedirect.com.au/catalogue/category1104
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Reply By: Member - Mik - Thursday, Jun 03, 2004 at 23:20

Thursday, Jun 03, 2004 at 23:20
Hello Rick, The oganizer/gps you are lookig at will work fine as a organizer but its the gps will let you down. The cf slot/sleave gps units are just crap, due to the low voltage output of the organizer and there ability to keep a continues satlock, i owned one to use with my Ipaq, it was resold very quickly. Ther are a lot better options out there. Second hand Ipaq $500, Garmin Etex $300, OziExplorer $100, link cable $50, maps $100 = $1050 and it works inside
hope this helps

Cheers Mik
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Reply By: Mark - Friday, Jun 04, 2004 at 22:01

Friday, Jun 04, 2004 at 22:01
Rick,
Sounds like you may be refering to the new Navman Pin (rebadged Mitac 168 PDA).
A friend picked one up from DSE yesterday & we had a play with it today & compared sensitivity to a Garmin etrex. So far we are pretty impressed with the unit & the 3D mapping software is pretty amazing when you compare it to the basic 2D squigly line stuff that most GPS provide. We punched in an address on the Central Coast (we were in Chatswood, Sydney) & hit "show me" and the unit drove the whole route at 90KMH in a simulation mode, showing all intersections with voice prompts to turn etc, even servos & medical centers etc were shown.
The sensitivity seemed pretty good & comparable with the Garmin, it was in a built up area but still seemed to give around 5 meters accuracy as we walked around Chatswood. The bonus with this unit is its a full blown Windows 2003 PDA so you have Word, Excel, Outlook etc as well when not using for Navigation. The only down side I could see was it has a non replacable battery built in so it will probably need replacing by the dealer at some stage. Early days as my friend has not tried it much in the car in built up areas as yet but should find out more on Monday.
Cheers
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